Posted!

Join the Nation's Conversation

How well would Xavier fit in with 'Catholic 7' schools?

Nicole Auerbach, USA TODAY Sports
11:46 a.m. EST December 16, 2012

Xavier guard Semaj Christon (0) one day might watch his Musketeers basketball team compete as a member of a league with seven teams that were founding members of the Big East.(Photo: Brian Spurlock, USA TODAY Sports)

Story Highlights

Xavier's athletics director says there has been no official contact with the departing schools

Xavier has been a member of the Atlantic 10 since 1995

The Musketeers have reached the NCAA men's basketball Sweet 16 four of the past five seasons

CINCINNATI – The first domino has fallen, as the seven non-football members of the Big East Conference have announced they will withdraw from the conference to create a basketball-centric league with an "emphasis on elite competition," according to a joint statement released on behalf of all seven school presidents.

The seven schools – dubbed the "Catholic 7" by the media due to their shared religious ties – are looking to add at least three teams for their new league. Because of their religious affiliations and emphasis on basketball, Xavier, Dayton and Creighton are names that keep popping up as possible additions. (Butler does not have religious ties but could be considered as well.)

Of the group of possible schools for the new conference to add, Xavier seems to fit the mold of what the Catholic 7 want. The Musketeers, who have competed in the Atlantic 10 Conference since 1995, have reached the NCAA tournament in all but four of those seasons. They have also reached the Sweet 16 four of the past five years, which would certainly put them in the "elite competition" world of college basketball.

If Xavier were to join a league with the Catholic 7, coach Chris Mack would be on board.

"Selfishly, I think it'd be great for recruiting," Mack told USA TODAY Sports on Friday. "It'd be great for our program. But at this point, it's all speculation. We just keep our head down and worry about today's practice."

"The great thing about our program is that for 30 years or so, we've done an amazing job of putting ourselves in a great position to be a desired commodity."

So have the Catholic 7 schools been in touch?

"There hasn't been any official contact of any sort," Xavier athletics director Mike Bobinski told USA TODAY Sports on Friday. "We have been mentioned in every story, and that's sort of a good news/bad news. Obviously, we feel good about that. There's a reason we're mentioned. It's because we've had an awful lot of success and we've done a lot of things very well for a long period of time here. That part is a good part.

"The challenging thing is to sort of calm the fears of our current colleagues and the folks in the Atlantic 10 who have been great partners to us. We've tried to be great partners to them. But none of us can predict the future. We are not advertising ourselves out there. We're not doing that.

"Should opportunities be presented to us that are different and worthy of consideration, it would be irresponsible to dismiss them. We have to be aware. We have to be receptive to those things."

Xavier is a small, private school with an undergraduate enrollment of 4,540 students. In its Regional University rating category, U.S. News & World Report ranks Xavier as the fourth-best university in the Midwest region (behind Creighton, Butler and Drake). To compare, Villanova is the top-ranked university in the North region, and Providence is fourth. The other five Catholic schools leaving the Big East are all ranked in the top 140 of the nation academically.

There's also the common religious component, plus the high level of basketball play.

"From an institutional fit and like missions and like commitments in the sports that are important to us – basketball being the primary sport – there is a lot of commonality there," Bobinski said. "You can't argue that. You can't deny that. Level of play and performance perspective, we match up extremely well with that group (of schools).

At the same time, Xavier has had lots of success in the Atlantic 10. Both Mack and Bobinski called the league "great" and said Xavier's relationship with the A-10 has been positive for both sides. That could make a potential decision to depart tougher.

"We've got great established relationships in the A-10," Bobinski said. "We've been there a long time. We've come to know each other well. We've got a routine. It's comfortable. It's familiar. And that may be the best place for us, and maybe there's a way to do something that works everybody together. But if not, we've also got to look out for the long-term success of our program and land ourselves in whatever circumstance we feel is the best long-term home for Xavier."